Mirador de la Memoria is a life’s reflection and a study into the possibilities of the advancements of neuroscience. Set in the near future, Dr Paulina Kochanowska has been put on house arrest with her personal robot Salvatore because of several experiments that push the limits of current science and have started to injure participants. Many journalists have reached out to get her side of the story, but the doctor has ignored them, all except one.

Kochanowska decides to allow a young writer named Emma Printemps into her home for a series of lengthy interviews. Their talks start slowly, but soon the Doctor opens up about her life’s work. She has been a part of many innovations in the field, from ‘sleep cuing’ that encourages better learning to “dream engineering” that manipulates routines to establishing an algorithm that better matches life partners. But the undertaking that has created the most controversy is the discovery of multi-subject mind melding that allows people to share thoughts and memories. Two serious conflicts weave their way through the narrative which create some good tension: Printemps true motivations are unknown for most of the story, and Doctor Kochanowska’s memory is starting to slip.

I found the scientific concepts fascinating. With the leaps and bounds in the technological and medical fields in the last 40 years, one can only attempt to speculate what will be possible in the next several decades. While the ideas in this novel are compelling, the storytelling lacks. The interview style just didn’t mesh with me. The idea of relating info through questions as opposed to living the discoveries along with the characters made it a bit dry at times.

I would recommend this book for anyone interested in a deep dive into neuroscience with some strong characters and one curious robot.

3 out of 5 stars

Thank you to Prodigy Gold Books and Ewa Miendlarzewska for the copy for review.

A neuroscience fiction? Wow. Fascinating concept, intriguing premise too. There are actual robot caretakers in Japan nowadays too! I’ve read about those recently and this story made me think of them hahah